by Barbara Drake (MFA ’04)

Sure, big systems like US missile defense and Amazon same-day delivery have huge impacts on Americans’ lives — but how many of us can say we’re connected to the talented people creating and overseeing them?

Turns out if you’re part of the Gator Nation, you already have bragging rights.

Meet Shitarria Battle and Samantha Hockenberry, two outstanding young alums with a passion for leading teams in major enterprises. Both were lauded at UF’s 40 Gators Under 40 celebration in April honoring top alumni from 2020, 2021 and 2022. And both made their mark at an early age in their respective fields: Battle, in military software and Hockenberry, in e-commerce logistics.

Check out how these engineering grads are working behind the scenes to keep communities safe and well supplied.

Shitarria Battle & C2BMC

Shitarria Battle

From her apt last name to her engineering expertise, Shitarria Battle (BSMEng ’10) is ideally suited for her leadership role at the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency, in Alabama. As chief engineer of C2BMC (Command and Control, Battle Management and Communications) system development, Battle oversees more than 100 personnel in designing, testing and fielding the software used to manage regional and global military missions.

A self-professed “math nerd,” Battle set her sights at age 30 on becoming a chief engineer at Missile Defense and achieved her goal in just two years, making her one of the agency’s youngest leaders. At work and in her spare time, she advocates for women and diversity in STEM, mentoring young women through 100+ Women Strong. She also supports Black Girls Code, a nonprofit that aims to increase the number of women of color in the digital technology space by introducing girls 7 to 17 to computer science.

When asked what historical figure she would most like to meet, Battle could not narrow the list down to one individual. There are too many women trailblazers in STEM she’d like to thank, she said.

“I want to sit down with the ‘firsts’: the first woman to graduate with an engineering degree, the first woman of color to integrate a major university to pursue STEM, the first woman to be employed by a major tech company,” she said. “I want to understand their hardships, their struggles, how they remained strong when facing adversity.”

Samantha Hockenberry & Amazon

Samantha Hockberry

Ever ordered from Amazon Prime and had the surreal experience of seeing the package on your doorstep a few hours later?

That magic is what Amazon calls Sub-Same-Day Delivery. The ultra-fast service relies on special fulfillment centers optimized for faster click-to-delivery speeds, and the people in charge of this complex system need to be knowledgeable, decisive and cool under pressure.

In other words, someone like Scottsdale-based Gator Samantha Hockenberry (BSISE ’12).

As director of Amazon’s sub-same-day network, Hockenberry leads 17,000 Amazon Associates and 430 operations managers throughout North America, overseeing the super-fast delivery of 400 million units (!) daily. Previously she launched a new Amazon initiative to transform its grocery delivery and helped the company develop a new response model that was key to its success early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We set the foundation for that back in 2017, figuring out how to scale delivery for grocery and doing incident response – like what do we do when a hurricane hits Florida?” Hockenberry recently explained. “When COVID hit in 2020, that base allowed us to pivot and scale grocery delivery across the world.”

Hockenberry’s experience managing large-scale events goes back to her days at UF. While studying for her bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering, she served as president of her sorority and as executive producer of the 2012 Gator Growl.

“Gator Growl definitely elevated how I approach leadership and motivating people,” she said. “It’s all about effective communication, being optimistic, being courageous and setting a clear vision.”

Hockenberry’s job is high stress, but she has mastered the art of staying calm in a whirlwind. That includes trusting her team, viewing mistakes as learning opportunities and, outside of work, practicing yoga and spending time with Brodie, her Jack Russell terrier.

“Make sure you can take time off because that is the only way that you can stay with anything for long,” she said. “Life is about balance, right?”